The time-tracking technology almost no one's heard of

It’s a technology that every business person has been frustrated by. But properly used, it can streamline Payroll.

“To reach Finance, press or say 2, for the front desk, say operator” — this makes most people crazy.

But that very technology – Interactive Voice Response (IVR) – can actually be a boon for your payroll department.

Most companies don’t know much about IVR for Payroll. But once they hear about it, many of your peers are intrigued.

In a nutshell: Instead of a time clock or timesheet system, employees would dial in their hours on a phone.

Who’s the best fit?

While all businesses could certainly benefit from adopting a system like that, there are certain scenarios where you’d really stand to make out.

See if any of these work situations sound like ones your organization has:

“We have a small amount of employees in many different locations.”  You may not have a huge workforce. But tracking time at multiple locations often brings multiple headaches. This way, all pay data is centralized. 

“We have certain employees on the road a lot.”  Road warriors sometimes don’t even make it back to the office during a given pay period. That wouldn’t matter now with IVR time-tracking.

“Our employees work on a contract-basis.”  Billable hours become easier to track when people can dial in once they’ve left a client’s office.

If you fit any of these descriptions or think IVR may work at your business, you can go a variety of routes.

Naturally there are vendors that will sell you a system. But you can also go with a home grown option. And if you already have (or are considering) an ERP system, you may be in luck – many of them come with IVR for Payroll as a feature.